In this post we'll share 8 strategies for improving your score on the ACT-Math section. We have worked with hundreds of students, and these ideas are almost always helpful.These strategies are written in a “top 8” list format, but they aren’t necessarily in order. Depending on the student, any given strategy might be more or less effective.
What’s the best way to meet people?Some might suggest that the most daunting aspect of college is making friends. Out of thousands of young adults, somehow you have to find a group of like-minded people to spend your time with. I mean, who wants to be alone throughout all four years of college? Chances are, you’ll be happier the more connections you make. It’s like high school all over again, except with a larger pool to weed through.
As a rising senior in college, I have had my share of first hand experience with standardized tests. Through elementary, middle, and high school, students in my state (like most states) are required to take assessment exams. When I had finally suffered through my last of those, the SATs and ACTs were right around the corner ready to greet me with open arms. I, on the other hand, wasn’t sure I was quite as ready to accept the challenge.
Even now, it seems as if new variations of standardized testing are being created yearly. Although a lot of controversy has surrounded the validity of this method of evaluation, for better or for worse, this is our country’s preferred approach. Instead of fighting it, I learned how to live with it. And this is an evaluation of my experience. Hopefully, if you yourself have not yet experienced the SATs and ACTs, or other similar standardized tests, this article will help ease your fears and confusion.
Since the ACT Writing test is optional, many students question whether schools even care about it. With the ACT clocking in at almost three hours, it can be tempting to skip the essay instead of spending an additional 30 minutes on the test. However, many schools require you to take the ACT with Writing - and even if it is not mandatory at the schools you are applying to, taking it anyway may show initiative and make you a more attractive candidate.
The SAT sometimes approaches math a bit differently than we’re used to in math class. One of these differences in approach is in the way some SAT math problems ask us to solve for relationships between variables, rather than the value of one particular variable. These problems can seem very challenging, or even downright impossible, at first glance, because they often give us multiple variables but only one equation.
One thing we learn in math class when studying systems of equations is that in order to solve for 2 variables, we usually need 2 separate equations; to solve for 3 variables, we need 3 separate equations; and so on. Certain SAT math problems will appear to violate that general rule and ask us to do something that’s supposed to be impossible, like solving for 2 variables with only 1 equation. When we look more closely at such problems, though, we realize that the SAT is not really asking for the value of each individual variable involved. Instead, we’re asked to find the value of the sum, product, or some other relationship involving 2 or more variables.